An ‘inadequate’ school in Exeter for deaf children has been told it is failing to do enough to come out of special measures - but today has confirmed it will still press on ahead with plans to relocate to Exmouth.

Exeter Deaf Academy continues to be criticised for ineffective safeguarding of its pupils, many of who are vulnerable, and observations were made about falling pupil numbers and low staff morale.

The school became the subject of a major safeguarding investigation in July 2016, following concerns raised in a whistleblowing letter sent to Ofsted.

Plans have been approved and work has began for the new Exeter Deaf Academy in Exmouth

Three members of staff were believed to have been suspended when the investigation by Devon County Council, Ofsted, DfE and the police was launched.

In November 2016, Ofsted placed the school in Topsham Road in special measures after concluding it was ‘inadequate’. Pupils were found to be at risk of harm, and it was found to be not providing an acceptable standard of education.

The school has since been working on a robust action plan to bring the academy out of special measures. Last November, plans were approved for Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education to complete its move to the former Rolle College site in Exmouth by 2018/19.

The total cost of the project is £17.9m, with nearly 80 per cent coming from the sale of the academy’s existing site in Topsham Road, Exeter.

Artist impression of a housing scheme proposed for the current home of Exeter Deaf Academy

In the meantime, as part of its ongoing monitoring, the school received a special measures inspection carried last month. The findings of that visit, the second since it was put in special measures, has now been made public.

The report reveals how a redundancy process was initiated last June due to lower than expected pupil numbers.

Consequently, teachers were not informed of the outcome until very close to the start of the new academic year which resulted in “extremely low staff morale” at the beginning of the school year.

Although no specific number was given for the amount of staff last year, it said a “high number” had been made redundant.

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The report also highlighted “significant” changes have taken place since it was put in special measures in November 2016, including a new vice-principal and having a designated lead for safeguarding.

It added there was now a board of trustees and a separate board of governors, and last month there were nine governor vacancies. The report concluded safeguarding will be scrutinised closely at the next monitoring visit.

Among the positive changes listed by Oftsed were the designated lead for safeguarding has a clear understanding of what is required.

It added improvements to site security such as the installation of the gates, driven by the appointment of a facilities and estates manager, have had a positive impact on the extent that pupils and students report feeling safe.

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Praise was also given to the appointment of the new vice principal who was said to be having a significant and positive impact, and there were some early signs of improvement in the quality of teaching.

When it came to the school’s action plan it said leaders had not refined the plan well enough as recommended at the time of the first monitoring visit.

Consequently, there remained a lack of challenge by governors and trustees to ensure that leaders are held to account for the school’s progress in completing planned actions to resolve weaknesses.

However, governors were becoming increasingly aware of their roles and responsibilities to improve the school’s performance.

It was also acknowledged pupils talk favourably of their school, and welcome personal and emotional support the staff show them.

During observations of learning and during informal breaks, inspectors saw no incidents of poor behaviour.

However, it was said a small number of pupils whose anxieties and complex needs result in inappropriate behaviour.

Responding to the report, the academy’s chair of governors Stephen King said: “The trustees and governors fully accept the judgement of the Ofsted inspectors, and our focus is firmly on making the necessary improvements on behalf of our young people.

“We still have a long way to go and there are some fundamentals we still need to get right. The areas identified for further improvement by the Ofsted inspectors presented no surprises to the academy leadership team and, in many cases, had been pre-emptively raised with the inspectors by academy leaders.

“However, we are delighted that, once again, our Children’s Home Progress House has been graded as Good by Ofsted. It underpins our confidence in ourselves to achieve at least the same grading across the whole academy.

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“We have spent the last year focusing on improvements whilst also restructuring our staff and leadership teams to ensure we are best placed to deliver those improvements. Recruiting the right people to lead our unique school and college has taken time and this has meant that significant progress has taken longer to realise than we’d hoped.

“Following the latest Ofsted report, the trustees and governors have taken immediate steps to accelerate the pace of improvement at the academy and have restructured the leadership team so it can respond quickly and effectively to the challenges the academy faces.

“Current vice-principal Trudy Chappell and head of safeguarding Sylvan Dewing have been appointed to the interim posts of co-principals at the academy.

“Ms Chappell will take the education lead, while Mr Dewing will lead on safeguarding and residential care.

“The positive addition of Ms Chappell and Mr Dewing to academy team in recent months was recognised in the Ofsted inspection. There are clearly improvements that the co-principals have put in place which are simply too new to have shown their full impact as yet.

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“It is the firm belief of the trustees and governors that the continuity provided by their shared leadership, and the significant and complementary professional experience they both draw on, will ensure the academy will make the vital improvements to education and care, at the necessary pace.

“Furthermore, the academy has also appointed a new temporary associate head of care to ensure we swiftly bring residential care back up to a high standard.

“Feedback from recent monitoring visits from local authorities has been very positive, which does give us additional reassurance that we are on the right track. However, we will never be complacent and will not rest until we have at least a ‘Good’ grading from Ofsted across all academy activities.”